Duo has bone to pick

Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat have their eyes on the future but also on the past — the past being Monterey County's archaeological history.

With the exception of other archaeologists, they know more about the county's early history and prehistory than other folks. That's because they see it, study it, record it and author scientific papers on it.

Where others may see a bucolic meadow of oak trees and grasses waving in the breeze, they see the site of an Esselen Indian campground or burial site.

"What we see is beneath what everybody else sees," Breschini said.

The off-68 residents have made their living here as archaeology consultants for 40 years. Their business, Archaeological Consulting, is called in prior to a construction project that digs into the land to provide an assessment of possible archeological sites that may be disturbed.

But Breschini, who has a Ph.D. in archaeology and Haversat, who has a master's degree, also have scoured the county's back country in search of signs of early man. In caves and cliff overhangs they have discovered Esselen Indian hand paintings and other drawn figures that provide an awesome picture of the county's ancient native people.

The couple's studies have led to many scientific papers and several books on county archaeology.

Last Thursday, Breschini and Haversat presented a talk about their findings at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation.

It is now known, Breschini said, that West Coast Indians not only migrated here by a northern land bridge some 15,000 years ago but also by boat. The boat route they took is known as the "kelp highway" and it led all the way to South America.

Besides fish and shellfish, Indians here also ate grizzly bears, chipmunks, seals, sea otters, elk, deer and lots of acorns. Through excavated fish bones, scientists know that early people fished not just from shore but in deep water from watercraft.

They also used mussel shells to make fishhooks and Olivella shell beads as money, and pieces of abalone shell to adorn their clothing.

Digs also have produced whale bones used to pry abalone from rocks, bone awls, pestles for grinding and bone whistles.

Perhaps Breschini and Haversat's most exciting discovery has come from DNA. They have found that the DNA in Esselen skeletons match that of present day Esselens.

DNA from a tooth found at Cypress Point matched that of four skeletons and the grandfather of a living Esselen Indian.

"We form a partnership with the local (Native American) people and they learn from us and we learn from them," Breschini said.

Archaeology is painstaking work. When a site is tested archaeologists dig down in 10-centimeter increments, carefully brushing away dirt, making photographs and sifting the dirt through screens for the smallest pieces of the past.

If a skeleton is found, Breschini said, the county coroner must be notified. If the bones are that of an Indian, the California Native American Heritage Commission is notified and appoints a local representative to oversee the treatment of the bones.

"As we go on and learn more, we're getting closer to good answers (about the past)," Breschini said.

Archaeological tools are becoming more sophisticated with advancements in technology. Radiocarbon dating, which helps scientists determine an item's age, can now trace age even farther back in time. And ground-penetrating radar helps archaeologists pinpoint objects underground without digging.

"With more data, we can do more advanced theories and test them," Breschini said.

That technology doesn't always turn up what one expects, Breschini said. While looking for burials before a construction project near Lovers Point in Pacific Grove one year, the radar recorded 40 hits.

"We thought they might be skulls, but thankfully they turned out to be abalone shells," he said.

On their own time, Breschini and Haversat have discovered and photographed a number of ancient cave paintings by the Esselen Indians. The hand paintings are particularly stunning. They even inspired Carmel poet Robinson Jeffers to write a poem about them.

Tragically, the cave paintings are fading because of vandalism by man and the forces of nature. Rain damages them and people have built fires in the caves and drawn graffiti over them.

"Rock art in this area is very fragile," Breschini said.

One cave, he said, has several hundred handprints and 15 percent of them are left-handed — about the same percentage of left-handed people in the present population.

The couple have spent years photographing the paintings, using a Hasselblad camera and various kinds of film. They plan to donate their images (about 50,000) to the Monterey County Historical Society.

"Preservation is what we're really trying to do now …" Breschini said. "The record we've made is probably going to be the primary documentation of this area."

Thanks to archaeologists like Breschini and Haversat and the advancement of scientific tools, the window to our past has opened wider.

Gary Breschini and Trudy Haversat are the authors of "The Esselen Indians of the Big Sur Country," as well as dozens of technical reports on local archaeology and prehistory. They also co-authored "Early Salinas (CA) (Images of America)," "Salinas (Postcard History)" and "Spreckels (CA) (Images of America)." The books are available at Star Market in Salinas, the Monterey County Historical Society and online at www.coyotepress.com.